The New York-based Jack Shainman Gallery revealed Wednesday (16 April) that it will represent the estate of Faith Ringgold, the late American artist whose work engaged with the Civil Rights movement and feminist causes. Jack Shainman is planning an exhibition of Ringgold’s work scheduled for November at the gallery’s sprawling new space in Tribeca.
Ringgold's estate joins an artist roster that includes El Anatsui, Nick Cave, Kerry James Marshall, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and the estate of Barkley L. Hendricks. Ringgold had previously been exclusively represented by ACA Galleries in New York since 1995. Ringgold died one year ago at age 93.
In a statement, Shainman says his gallery will “do our part in helping to further cement the legacy of an artist who played such a significant role in shaping the culture of American art. Faith Ringgold’s work touches on themes that continue to be relevant to our current social and political climates, perhaps more so now.”
In 2022 Ringgold was the subject of a major retrospective at the New Musem in New York, Faith Ringgold: American People. In a review of that show for The Art Newspaper, the art historian Charles Moore described Ringgold as "among her generation’s most visionary and influential figures, relentlessly challenging social hierarchies, racial prejudice and gender norms".
Jack Shainman has also picked up representation of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation, which Ringgold started in 1999 to challenge the traditional canon of art history and champion artists of the African diaspora.
Ringgold’s daughter, Michele Wallace, says in a statement that Jack Shainman Gallery has a “long history of supporting Black American artists, while also helping grow the institutional awareness and embrace of their work”. She adds: “We could not have imagined finding better partners to help us deepen the legacy of Faith Ringgold."
The change in representation comes at a time of growing recognition of—and collector interest in—Ringgold's indelible contributions. Last year, her work achieved a new record at auction when her painted story quilt Dinner at Gertrude Stein's: The French Collection Part II, #10 (1991) sold for $1.25m ($1.5m with fees) at Sotheby's in New York.